Shattered

‘September 18th, 1516’

‘South England’

Angeline

I’d been living at my brother Solomon’s manor for the past nine months, and it had been the best nine months of my life.

The second I’d told him I was pregnant on the first night I got here, he had welcomed me into his arms, and he had been as gracious to me every day since.

Solomon wasn’t just my brother. He had grown to be my friend.

As my belly got bigger, so, too, did my heart.

It was filled with so much love, so much joy, that every morning I woke up excited to be alive.

After everything that had happened at Maynard Manor, with the Alpha of the Millennium and with Farrah, I thought I’d never be happy again.

I was convinced that I’d spend the rest of my life hiding behind my shame, working as a maid and waiting to grow old.

But that wasn’t what happened. Not at all.

At Solomon’s manor, I was more than just a maid. I was his second-in-command, and I helped the inn next door run smoothly.

I got to meet all of the travelers that came to stay here, and I’d been able to learn so much about the world from them.

And every night, I got to eat dinner with Solomon and Jotham.

I was hungry all the time now, and Jotham didn’t even blink anymore when I finished three full plates of his cooking. It was that good.

~Life was that good.~

I felt at peace here. At home.

But then one day, as I was greeting a pair of travelers who had come to stay at the inn, I felt my belly rumble.

Something inside me popped and what felt like a bucket of liquid poured out of me.

Solomon was behind the counter gathering money, and he ran over immediately.

He called for Jotham and the two of them helped me to the healing room, and then they rang for the town’s best healer, a black-haired lady named Maribelle.

Fourteen hours later, I was holding a beautiful baby girl.

The labor had been tough, the most excruciating pain I had ever known, and that included the two times my heart had broken.

Once by Raphael and once by losing Farrah.

But I pushed and I pushed, and through the tears, I kept telling myself that my future was coming. That out of the pain would grow the happiest joy.

And it did.

I cradled her in my arms, instantly feeling more for her than I’d ever felt for another living being in my life. She was the love of my life, and she’d only been alive a few moments.

Everything about her was perfect—the wisps of white-blonde hair on her head, her icy-blue eyes, and her porcelain skin.

Her skin was so pale it was almost unbelievable.

“What will you call her?” Solomon asked, his head right behind my shoulder.

He was dabbing my damp forehead with a handkerchief, but he paused to smile at the baby in my arms.

“Snow,” I said with certainty, although I hadn’t given it much thought.

Snow like the white of her skin, like the cold of the winter when I’d met my own brother.

The winter always came with hope, hope for warmth, for a new year, for change. And that was what Snow was to me.

Hope.

Weeks passed by, and Snow and I had gotten ourselves into a routine.

I’d take her for walks all over the grounds of the manor and the inn, and she’d meet the traveling visitors.

Every one of our guests loved her. There wasn’t a soul on earth that my daughter couldn’t win over.

She had this power where she could put a smile on anyone’s face, just by smiling at them first.

I was so in love with her I couldn’t believe it.

Every day, after Snow and I had visited with the guests at the inn, we’d walk beyond the grounds.

There was a quiet forest just behind the manor, and it was more than beautiful during the day. It was picturesque.

The sun would shine onto the trees, reflecting a golden glow off the snow that had fallen.

Today was just like the other early afternoons where I’d bundled Snow up in blankets and lifted her into my arms, ready for a walk through the forest.

As soon as we stepped onto the trail, I felt the sunlight hit my face.

“Snow, look how wonderful,” I said, turning around so my daughter could see all the glistening trees.

She murmured, a smile on her lips, and I just about welled over with pride.

She was mine, forever.

We walked deeper into the forest, listening to the music of the chirping birds. It was the perfect walk.

But then I heard something behind us, the sound of a branch snapping, maybe.

I turned, holding Snow tightly to me. But there was nothing there. I exhaled.

~Relax, Angeline.~

I decided it would be a good time to turn back to the manor and start preparing lunch.

But then something caught my eye.

A black figure, right where the noise had come from. And as I squinted my eyes to see it more clearly, I realized it was a man.

He was stepping out from the trees, and I backed up a few steps.

“Don’t come closer!” I shouted, trying my best to sound firm.

“Now, now,” he said, his voice so syrupy it sent fear through my veins. “Don’t be afraid, young lady.”

“What do you want?” I asked, my voice shaking.

“That’s a complicated question,” he said, stepping toward me.

“Then… then who are you?” I asked, willing myself to be strong.

“Have you heard of the Deities, girl?” he asked, not offering a name.

The only Deities I’d ever heard of were like fairytale characters. Children talked about them, but they weren’t real. Only humans and werewolves were real.

“I’ve heard children talk about them. But they’re fantasy.”

“Oh, no no no,” he said, shaking his head at me. “They are real. Yes, ~we~ are very real indeed.”

“You’re a…?” I asked, now more afraid than ever.

Not only was there a strange man stepping closer to me in the forest but he was clearly unwell. Spewing stories about Deities.

“I am. I am very powerful,” he said, continuing to close the distance between us. “But let’s not waste time on me. Let’s talk about you.”

“Me?” I asked, surprised. “What do you know about me?”

“I know everything about you, young lady,” he replied. “I know about your mother and your father.”

“What?”

“Your mother was a brothel woman, yes. But she was also a sorceress,” he stated, now just a few feet away. “And your father, he was a vampire.”

I shook my head frantically, holding Snow even tighter. “That’s fiction! That’s not real.”

~But how did he know my mother worked in a brothel?~

“Oh it is real, girl. And it’s why I’m here.”

I looked at him and saw that his gaze was focused on the baby in my arms—on Snow.

“See, your genes are very valuable, girl. There’s sorcerer blood and vampire blood swirling through you. But her genes,” he said, pointing to Snow, “they have all of that, mixed with werewolf blood. And not just the blood of any werewolf. No. The blood of the Alpha of the Millennium.”

My eyes flashed wide. “How do you know?” I squeaked.

“I know everything!” he stormed.

A moment later, he looked as calm as can be. “I’ll be taking her from you.”

I looked at him, at the man clothed in all black, with eyes that looked deeper than any sea.

He was a bad man. I knew it. And he would not be taking my daughter anywhere.

“No,” I said steadily.

He chortled. “Oh, dear girl, forgive me. It was not a question,” he said, and now he was directly in front of me.

He reached out for Snow, and I snapped her back into me, again moving backwards, away from him.

“Stay away from us!” I heard my voice echo through the forest, and then I blinked, and the man was gone.

I took a shaky breath. Then I squeezed Snow against me.

She was still here. We were safe.

“Oh, young lady,” I heard a voice say from behind me.

I snapped myself around, and there he was. “It’s time now.”

“~NO!~” I screamed. “I won’t!”

I tried to run backwards, to the start of the forest, but the man kept popping up in front of me.

“Hand her over,” he said sternly.

“NO!”

“Hand her over, or I will take her from you. I have no problem using force, Evangeline,” he said, giving me a wicked smile.

I froze.

~Evangeline.~

He knew that was my name, my full name.

But… nobody knew that. Not Farrah, not Solomon. Only my mother and I, and my mother was long gone. But this man, he knew it.

Before I could ask him how he knew it, ~who he was~, something strange happened.

I felt my body get stuck in the air. I suddenly felt warm all over, and when I tried to move my arms, my legs, anything… I couldn’t.

I opened my mouth to scream, but I couldn’t do that, either. I was completely frozen. Trapped, in nothingness.

I watched in horror as the man stepped closer to me, an unnatural-looking smile on his face. “Dear Evangeline, you shouldn’t have struggled against me. This could’ve been much easier.”

I whimpered in response, but nothing came out. When he was directly in front of me, he stopped.

He reached his hands out and took Snow from me.

I couldn’t move.

I couldn’t stop him.

All I could do was watch.

“You asked who I was. My name is Barron Von Logia,” the man said as he rocked Snow in his arms.

She started to cry. I’d never seen her cry so loudly before. Usually when a stranger held her, she laughed.

“Like I told you, I’m a Deity. Everything I do has a reason. This girl, she’ll serve a purpose,” he said, eyeing my daughter.

“But so will you. On your twentieth birthday, you’ll be able to go through the ritual.”

~The ritual?~

What was this crazy man talking about? How had he trapped me in air? Was I having a nightmare?

This couldn’t be real! It couldn’t!

“You can become a vampire, if you so choose. That will be your purpose. You’ll thank me one day. You’ll see.” And then, before I could process his words, he and my baby…

they were gone.